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Simulating water and nitrogen loss from an irrigated paddy field under continuously flooded condition with Hydrus-1D model

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Abstract

Agricultural non-point source pollution is a major factor in surface water and groundwater pollution, especially for nitrogen (N) pollution. In this paper, an experiment was conducted in a direct-seeded paddy field under traditional continuously flooded irrigation (CFI). The water movement and N transport and transformation were simulated via the Hydrus-1D model, and the model was calibrated using field measurements. The model had a total water balance error of 0.236 cm and a relative error (error/input total water) of 0.23%. For the solute transport model, the N balance error and relative error (error/input total N) were 0.36 kg ha−1 and 0.40%, respectively. The study results indicate that the plow pan plays a crucial role in vertical water movement in paddy fields. Water flow was mainly lost through surface runoff and underground drainage, with proportions to total input water of 32.33 and 42.58%, respectively. The water productivity in the study was 0.36 kg m−3. The simulated N concentration results revealed that ammonia was the main form in rice uptake (95% of total N uptake), and its concentration was much larger than for nitrate under CFI. Denitrification and volatilization were the main losses, with proportions to total consumption of 23.18 and 14.49%, respectively. Leaching (10.28%) and surface runoff loss (2.05%) were the main losses of N pushed out of the system by water. Hydrus-1D simulation was an effective method to predict water flow and N concentrations in the three different forms. The study provides results that could be used to guide water and fertilization management and field results for numerical studies of water flow and N transport and transformation in the future.

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Acknowledgments

This work was partly supported by the Basic Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 2652015116), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51209187, 41530316), National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFC0402805), and the Beijing Higher Education Young Elite Teacher Project (Grant No. YETP0653).

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  1. School of Water Resources and Environment, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing, 100083, People’s Republic of China

    Rui Yang, Juxiu Tong, Bill X. Hu, Jiayun Li & Wenshuo Wei

  2. Key Laboratory of Groundwater Circulation and Evolution, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Ministry of Education, Beijing, 100083, People’s Republic of China

    Rui Yang, Juxiu Tong, Bill X. Hu, Jiayun Li & Wenshuo Wei

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  1. Rui Yang
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Correspondence to Juxiu Tong.

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Yang, R., Tong, J., Hu, B.X. et al. Simulating water and nitrogen loss from an irrigated paddy field under continuously flooded condition with Hydrus-1D model. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 15089–15106 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-9142-y

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